Of interest to the present invention are the disclosures of Moore, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,529,786; 5,637,321; 5,645,851 and 5,750,144 which disclose methods for preparing water-insoluble, undenatured type II collagen compositions including those separated from non-type II collagen containing tissue. The patents also disclose the use of such water-insoluble undenatured type II collagen for the treatment of arthritis symptoms including the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. In contrast to water-soluble highly purified type II procollagen, the use of undenatured insoluble type II collagen avoids the need for complex purification. Small doses of undenatured type II collagen deactivate killer T-cell attack of joint cartilage in humans and collagen improves arthritic symptoms in older women. See Bagchi et al., Effects of Orally Administered Undenatured Type II Collagen Against Arthritic Inflammatory Diseases: a Mechanistic Exploration, International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Research 22: 101-110 2002 and D'Altilio et al., Therapeutic Efficacy and Safety of Undenatured Type II Collagen Singly or in Combination with Glucosamine and Chondroitin in Arthritic Dogs, Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods 17: 189-196 2007. Recently, a human clinical study was conducted in approximately 52 osteoarthritic subjects. Subjects (n=26) treated with undenatured type II collagen exhibited marked improvements without any significant adverse events. Furthermore, this study demonstrated the superior efficacy of undenatured type II collagen in comparison to Glucosamine+Chondroitin treatment (n=26) as measured by WOMAC, VAS and Lequesne osteoarthritis assessment scores. See Gupta et al., Safety and Therapeutic Efficacy of Undenatured Type II Collagen (UC-II) in Horses, Soc. Toxicology, Abstract of the 46th Annual Meeting (2007) and Bagchi et al., Beneficial effects of oral administration of undenatured type II collagen on osteoarthritis: a human clinical trial, American College of Nutrition: abs, October 2008; See also Gupta et al., Pain Reduction Measured by Ground Force Plate Arthritic Dogs Treated with Type-II Collagen, Soc. Toxicology, Abstract of the 48th Annual Meeting (2009).
While solid tablets and capsules have been used for the delivery of collagen there remains a desire for other delivery modes. In particularly it is desired that subjects be able to consume collagen as part of a food or beverage, particularly for those having difficulty consuming pills or capsules. One particularly preferred type of collagen for human and veterinary consumption is water-insoluble collagen which by its very nature is not well-suited for formulation into a beverage because it will not remain in suspension to form a stable dispersion. Accordingly, there remains a desire for methods of producing stable aqueous dispersions of collagen that may be incorporated into nutraceutical beverages and foods to promote joint health in osteoarthritis sufferers as well as be used in cosmetics and the like.
Also of interest to the present invention are high pressure mixer/reactor devices such as Microfluidizer® materials processors available from Microfluidics International Corp. (Newton, Mass. and those described in Thumm et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,332 which discloses the pressurization of individual reactant streams to from 8,000 to 50,000 psi and the propulsion of reactants at velocities of up to 250 meters per second.